Originally Posted by
lotemblizej
I personally would book now with the confirmed u/g on return flight and waitlist outbound. As you mention, you cancel for a flight credit that you could use to book another set of flights if they become available. I have done that several times this year and find it easy to do. Are you checking for open jaws (into one European city, out of another) or just pure round trips? In the past, open jaws have worked for me when visiting two or more destinations. You would also expand your chances of finding u/g availability if you were willing to do a 1 stop IAD--XXX-Europe, where XXX is EWR or ORD. In the past, both have had PZ to some cities when IAD did not.
Yes, I'm doing open jaw. I'm actually out of EWR, the only reason I am going via IAD is because I want to goto to the PL (which obviously limits my possible connection points).
I went ahead and booked EWR-IAD-CDG/VIE-BRU-IAD-EWR (12/8-14). BRU-IAD is confirmed. (though its been 12hrs and it still hasn't ticketed. hopefully that will clear up soon)
I basically picked the outbound with the most percentage of empty seats on the seat map (IAD-CDG) Most of the IAD-BRU/LHR/FRA were much more full.
I'll give it a week or two, and keep searching for PZ>0 then and then maybe start opening it up to straight EWR-Europe or worst case STW I guess (I know that has a 30day cutoff)
I booked R which ended up being cheaper that Y so at least I'm higher in the order
I'm not sure when the advanced purchase requirements are before fares really start going up.